Over 50 compulsory redundancies in States last year

There were 59 compulsory redundancies in the States of Jersey in 2018, the year that new CEO Charlie Parker warned “there will be casualties” as the government seeks to downsize in a bid to save money, it has emerged.

Overall, the States’ Redundancy Fund paid out £730,616.59 last year.

Mr Parker announced his ‘One Gov’ plans to rip up the structure of government, creating new departments in March last year.

He promised that the plans would make the States more efficient and help to create savings, but explicitly warned that the restructuring process would involve redundancies – particularly at the “top-heavy” managerial level.

Pictured: CEO Charlie Parker.

New figures have shown that during the first year of ‘One Gov’ being brought into play, there were 59 compulsory redundancies, while 12 other employees received a transfer payment.

Across the year, 42 members of staff also applied for voluntary redundancy as part of a scheme launched in 2015 in order to help reduce the States’ headcount.

Up to August last year, voluntary and compulsory redundancy payments totalled £430,074.94, with the States drawing a further £300,541.65 during the latter part of the year from the Redundancy Fund to be spent on voluntary redundancies alone.

Of the latter, £94,150.50 went to exiting Chief Minister’s Department employees, £16,275.55 to Community and Constitutional Affairs workers, £41,319.28 to Department for Infrastructure employees, with Health and Social Services taking the largest chunk at £148,796.32.

Pictured: Health and Social Services staff accounted for £148,796.32 of the voluntary redundancy payments.

The States launched their voluntary redundancy scheme in 2015 as a measure to help facilitate shrinking the public sector’s 6,000-plus headcount.

That year, it was agreed that approvals for funding of voluntary and compulsory redundancies would be made by a panel made up of the States Chief Executive, the Treasurer and Director of Human Resources.

Successful applicants of the voluntary redundancy scheme are given three weeks' pay p​er year of completed continuous service. This is capped at 18 months' pay (78.27 weeks), meaning that the final payment, including any notice period, won't exceed any pay the employee would have received up to normal retirement age.

Between its launch and August 2018, there were 641 applications (329 in 2015, 226 in 2016, 44 in 2017 and 42 in 2018), with a total of 199 approved.

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